dropping new teachers into a war zone

Recently I finished the book Relentless Pursuit, A Year in the Trenches with Teach for America by Donna Foote. It describes a school year from the perspective of 4 college graduates who have volunteered to teach in an inner-city high school in Los Angeles, CA. If ever a parent has doubts about the merits of homeschooling, they should read this book and be grateful for the opportunity to teach their own children in a safe, clean, disciplined environment.

The imagery of what daily life was like brought bad unpleasant memories of my "student teaching" experience, which was a cheap version of TFA. I was paid a meager amount of money, most of which went for classroom supplies, to teach in a slightly safer version of Locke High in downtown Norfolk, VA. The same uninterested student body, the same unsupportive administration, and the same lack of assistance in lesson planning mimicked the experience of these fresh recruits in the fight to reform poor school districts.

After my first day of being shown where the teacher's lounge and restroom were, I was left in an empty room with no idea how to start teaching 60 incoming 6th graders reading and history. As I had been substitute teaching in the suburbs for several years I was deemed qualified to be on my own, but I had always been given lesson plans, and given weeks in class to prepare the simplest lesson. Not only did I not know where to start helping children improve their reading when the class ranged from 1st to 5th grade levels, the books available in class sets were dull, politically correct drivel. At least for history I was given textbooks, but not the Virginia Standards of Learning that were supposed to be followed and posted every morning.

The entire endeavor was an exercise in frustration and failure. I never left the stage of being utterly overwhelmed shown by all 4 TFA newbies in the first few months of their school year. I did see signs of the TFA organization recognizing and addressing the lack of preparation and assistance to future teachers in Relentless Pursuit. As for my experience I was "medically boarded" out after several months when I kept threatening miscarriage every time I stepped foot back in the door at my school. A few years later I decided that my baby, born 7 months later, was never again going into a public school classroom. He has been homeschooled along with 2 of his younger sisters and I have found that I make a much better prepared and calmer homeschooling teacher than a recruit in improving disadvantaged schools.